VIN Number decode

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Yes, I have. Benzworld has a search engine which provides some information for a given VIN number, however it is not a complete database. For Instance, it does not provide the assembly plant for my '97 E320 (Rastatt), but does for my new '04 E500 (Sindelfingen). I saw an article in The Star years ago that provided some of the codes, but it wasn't complete either.

The VIN shall consist of four sections of characters which shall be grouped accordingly:

(a) The first section shall consist of three characters that occupy positions one through three (1-3) in the VIN. This section shall uniquely identify the manufacturer, make and type of the motor vehicle if its manufacturer produces 500 or more motor vehicles of its type annually. If the manufacturer produces less than 500 motor vehicles of its type annually, these characters along with the third, fourth and fifth characters of the fourth section shall uniquely identify the manufacturer, make and type of the motor vehicle. These characters are assigned in accordance with Sec. 565.7(a).

[I have this information}

(b) The second section shall consist of five characters, which occupy positions four through eight (4-8) in the VIN. This section shall uniquely identify the attributes of the vehicle as specified in Table I. For passenger cars, and for multipurpose passenger vehicles and trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4536 kg. (10,000 lbs.) or less, the first and second characters shall be alphabetic and the third and fourth characters shall be numeric. The fifth character may be either alphabetic or numeric. The characters utilized and their placement within the section may be determined by the manufacturer, but the specified attributes must be decipherable with information supplied by the manufacturer in accordance with Sec. 565.7

information supplied by the manufacturer in accordance with Sec.565.7.

[This is mainly what I am looking for.]

(d) The fourth section shall consist of eight characters, which occupy positions ten through seventeen (10-17) of the VIN. The last five

(5) characters of this section shall be numeric for passenger cars and for multipurpose passenger vehicles and trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4536 kg. (10,000 lbs.) or less, and the last four (4) characters shall be numeric for all other vehicles. (1) The first character of the fourth section shall represent the vehicle model year. The year shall be designated as indicated in Table VI as follows:

the above sites have erroneous information in them. My cars have VINs as follows:

1997 E320: WDBJF55F4VJ*****

2004 E500: WDBUF70J04A*****

Neither of these VINS have an A in the 5th character position, but both are clearly gasoline engines. The 55 does agree with the inline 6 engine code in the E320, and the 70 agrees with the V8 engine code for the E500.